Jess shook hands with Eugen Bopp dejectedly and walked to the players' tunnel. Although he had an assist, the terrible situation the team faced in the second half was inseparable from his poor control in the midfield. Twain walked over to stop him.
"You've done well enough, Ian. Don't worry, go take a shower and come back to watch the game. We'll win. "
Perhaps not believing the manager's last words, Jess looked up at Twain.
The young manager grinned and said, "Do you want to bet, Ian?"
"Unbelievable! When Forest was leading by two goals, everyone thought Wimbledon was done for. But look at it now … In the first half, Forest scored two goals in four minutes to establish their lead. In the second half, it was Wimbledon's turn to explode. They also scored two goals in four minutes to tie the score! " While Motson was commentating, he thought of a question: Is it true that as long as Tony Twain is in the game, it must be so dramatic? Something would always happen to make people look forward to it.
"After conceding two goals, Tang En made changes to the players. He replaced the veteran Ian Jess with the German youngster, Eugen Bopp. But I bet this substitution was for the situation where the opponent scored a goal back. Wimbledon's second goal came too quickly. No one expected it! "
That's right, no one expected it. Even their own coach, Mr. Murdoch, did not expect it. So, his celebration was not as crazy as the first goal. He only hugged his assistant manager and stood on the sidelines to applaud the players.
Twain glanced at him and realized that he could not stand the sight of him no matter how he looked at him. If they were really forced into a tie, he did not want to attend the post-match press conference. He did not want to see that smug old face. If the old man said a little more smug and arrogant words at the press conference, such as "we deserved to win" or "it's a pity we didn't get all three points", Twain could not guarantee that he would not shove the microphone into the other party's mouth in front of the media.
In short, he was very unhappy! Fortunately, the German kid's performance on the field made his mood slightly better.
Eugen Bopp quickly completed the first tackle after he came on. He beautifully tackled Leokirk's ball in the middle and then passed it to Williams on the flank. However, the ball was quickly lost. Although the ball was quickly lost, the kid's performance still received applause from the fans in the stands. Tang En also gave him a thumbs up from the sidelines.
Pope, who had received the affirmation from the fans and the manager, became more active. Then the fans and the commentator saw a scene like this —
Wimbledon used their team's ferocious tackle to gain possession of the ball, but it was quickly intercepted by Eugen Bopp. Pope, who was not good at organizing, chose to pass the ball to Andy Reid or Gareth Williams, but the ball immediately changed hands under Wimbledon's pressure. Wimbledon decided to charge into the 30-meter zone of the Forest team in one go and take advantage of the momentum of equalizing the score to continue to work hard and turn defeat into victory. But just as the ball entered the midfield, it was once again intercepted by Pope and Smeka …
Within two minutes, the possession of the ball would change hands three or four times between the two teams.
If he could not intercept the ball, Pope would also think of ways to foul, delaying the opponent's attack speed and interrupting the rhythm of the attack. He did not have any problems with his stamina when he was on the field. He felt much better than the Wimbledon players who had been pressing for half of the game.
As a result, the Forest team's offense could not get going, and Wimbledon's offense repeatedly hit a wall. Both sides sank into a quagmire of mistakes in the midfield.
Tang En, however, was very happy with the situation. He said to Walker, "We've successfully stalled the opponent. That kid, Pope, did well. Maybe I'll consider giving him an appropriate number of opportunities to play."
Walker agreed with the latter half of Tang En's words, but he was not optimistic about the team's situation on the field. "Pope's performance last season was outstanding. But I feel that even if we can prevent Wimbledon from attacking, we can't do it ourselves. Are you suddenly satisfied with a draw, Tony? "
"Of course I'm not satisfied with a draw, but we have to give the team some buffer time …" Tang En himself was not confident. The price of strengthening the defense in the midfield was to weaken the ability to organize the offense. Ian Jayce was not good at defense, but his passing and experience were still very admirable to Tang En. It seemed like they could only rely on Andy Reid now?
Tang En suddenly thought of something. He asked Walker how much time was left until the end of the game.
"Not counting the injury stoppage time, 17 minutes."
"There's still time. Des, go call Cash back. "
Pope had worked very hard to obtain a balance in the situation. He could not let it go to waste. As the manager, Tang En had to make timely adjustments. Otherwise, if the team could not win, he would be the one to blame.
The 20-year-old Irish midfielder, Brian Cash, could play on the two sides of the midfield. There was nothing praiseworthy about his ability to pass and shoot. As a side player, his passing was too ordinary. This was the conclusion Tang En had obtained from training. However, there was one thing that Tang En admired about him: his outstanding dribbling skills. Cash was not a player who relied on speed to break through. His breakthroughs were all based on his skills.
That was because the four main players in the midfield were basically confirmed. Like Pope, Cash could only accept being a substitute. Such players might not be able to play in every game, but there would definitely be a few games that were most suitable for them to perform. For example, this game.
Eugen Pope's appearance on the field proved that Tang En's train of thought was correct. Now that the defense had stabilized, he was going to start his counterattack.
Cash returned to the technical area. Tang En told him that he only needed to do one thing after he went on the field. "Break, break, and break again. Don't be afraid of Wimbledon's black feet. They're almost done for. Can't you see that they're panting heavily? Use your skills to tease them to your heart's content, provoke them, break through them! As long as their defensive line is messed up by you, our chance will come … "
Speaking up to this point, Cash suddenly asked, "Boss, how messed up do we need to be?"
Tang En froze for a moment, then said, "Churn it into juice!"
"I understand!"
"You understand?" Tang En remembered that he had not finished speaking.
"Yes, just like chopping up an apple and putting it into a blender to churn it."
Tang En stared at the Irishman with widened eyes. "Oh, my god. Your description is amazing! That's right, that's it! But we have to change the apple to nuts. Go, go up and churn them up! "
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